SANParks.org Forums

General questions, comments and sightings related to the webcams in Kruger National Park can be placed here!

What about CAMS at rest camps like Lower Sabie and Letaba. You have a river passing the camp and electricity from the facilaties at the fence. It will create a fantastic oppertunity to see animals coming down to the river. PLEASE

Dear Stef

The idea of putting up webcams at restcamps like Letaba, Lower Sabie, overlooking the river, etc, is a very good one and we'll consider it in the future. One disadvantage of locations like these is that the riverbanks are very long and stretched out and the area to be covered by the camera will be very large. A floodlight at these locations might also impact negatively on the environment and we always have to consider the impact of human structures/actions on nature (light pollution is a factor that we try to limit as far as possible).

A webcam at these locations will have great scenic value at a wider angle but might be less effective to watch animals as the area to be covered might be too big to cover on a webcam (unless the camera is always manned and manually controlled to pan, zoom and focus).

Thanks and enjoy our new website!

Regards
Danie, KNP

Hi There

Visited the cams for the fist time today - why are 30 second stills only available? Would is not be possible to have a continous stream?


Paola

Video streaming does require quite a lot of bandwidth which is not possible at this stage at Orpen. The telecom company barely keeps the current diginet line up and going!

In the future it will become possible but for now, we are going to stick to the 30 second images.

Keep on watching!

The current camera at Orpen is not sponsored by anybody at the moment and the costs of its operation is carried by Kruger National Park (SANParks) and maintained by us as well.

The data line is hired from a telecom company and maintained by them as well; supplying the voice and data lines in KNP. All our e-mail, admin, reservations, etc. are also utilising the same line to Orpen.

Sponsors will of course always be very welcome! We might even be able to put up more cams quicker then!

We've been watching the marabous at Orpencam on and off during the morning. At first there were 2, one of them has been there the whole morning. Will that be because of the rain overnight which filled up the hole? As it was rather dry yesterday, what what would he expect to find to eat?

Marabou storks visit waterholes quite often. Their diet consists of baby crocs, fish, frogs (all close to/in water) and then rodents, insects, other small mammals and carrion.

The water in the waterhole came 'overnight' from a borehole not too far from the waterhole. As the waterhole was drying up, our staff at Orpen pumped water from the borehole to the waterhole.

When I installed the camera, the one marabou stork was never too far away during the setup-process. As soon as I left the area, it moved back to the waterhole in search of food. Marabou storks are also attracted to veld fires. They march in front of the advancing fire feeding on animals and insects that are fleeing!

Hi Kruger/Danie,

I see the waterhole's level is up. Did the park fill it, or was there a bit of rain last night?

Dear Meg
One correction, the camera and flood light are not powered by solar panels - underground cable running from camp (220V AC) powering the camera and the floodlight.

Geez, I had to go far back for this one. I asked the same question just after joining and Danie gave this answer:

Dear s021700
Thanks for the question.

We will definitely not be opposed to a 'sponsored by company xyz'-message on the cam page if that webcam installation was sponsored by company xyz.

I hope this answers your question!

Hi

Just read an article now about the Orpen webcam, in December 2004 it had 13000 hits, and in March 2005 it had over 50000 hits and is becoming very popular.

They say if you cant come to the Kruger we will bring it to you.

Hi all. Have done a search but cant seem to find the answer I am looking for. Yes I am computer illiterate Is it posible to change the image size that the web cam is producing on your computer? Basically can I increase the size to take up my whole screen?

Hi NTTF and welcome!

There is no zoom-option at present, and even if there was, the image would still be 384x288 pixels and so it would probably look dreadful in full screen. But who knows what the future may bring?